The first thing I noticed upon arriving The Gaming Goat's store in Joliet was how much bigger it was than the Geneva store. In addition to the Smash tournament going on, there was a pretty good sized Magic: The Gathering event. Despite two tournaments running simultaneously, there was still plenty of room for a decent sized Smash tournament. We had a back corner lounge area with couches set up as the main stream station. My only complaint about the venue was that the commentators were sitting right next to the players which was distracting when playing. Next to the lounge corner we had two extra tables reserved for putting Smash set ups on which was more than enough to finish the tournament in a reasonable amount of time. Although the tournament ran decently, it still ended at a late hour due to the 10:30 p.m. starting time. We finished around 1:00 a.m last night, so people that have work on Saturday mornings might not be able to attend. For most of the players this wasn't an issue though. Being on a Friday there is no worry of having school the next day, so many people didn't mind the late start and finish. Personally I prefer earlier starts and getting home closer to midnight, but it isn't a huge deal.

The other Smash set ups

In this review I need to keep in mind that this is one of the newest weeklies in Chicago; it has only been around for about a month. From my talking to the TOs and store owners, they recognize what the issues are and have been working to fix them in the future weeks. They have already created a solid weekly in a short period of time, and it can only get better from here on. For a tournament as new as this, it was put together well and ran just fine. I can see myself attending regularly so long as I don't have to wake up early the next day to travel.

I am Benjamin "JJROCKETS" Rowe, a Smash Ultimate Diddy Kong main from Chicago, IL. Currently I live in Daejeon, Korea where I work as an elementary school English teacher. In Brawl and Smash 4, I was known as one of the top Diddy Kong players, and I am looking to continue this success in Ultimate. On my website I will be posting about my travels in Asia, my Smash Ultimate tournament experiences, guides on how to improve at Smash, and random thoughts about life. Besides blog style posts, I also have my tournament schedule with my upcoming events listed, and a compilation of my tournament results in Ultimate.